From that point onward, "It became a matter of social justice," Campagnola says. Founded in the summer of 2005, with 25 at-risk youth, Circle Round the Square was born. The grant-funded, community- and business-supported model capitalizes on the local resources of the downtown arts district, as students rotate through studios across the town square. The daily schedule is intense. Students arrive between 8 am and 9 am for a fresh, healthy (USDA) breakfast and are then escorted by age group to various locations. The first morning session focuses on individual expression, in ceramics, painting, collage, printmaking, and papermaking. After one week they switch and move to the next studio. In the second morning session, students spend all five weeks working on a theater performance. Lunch is served at nearby Hocking College using locally grown produce. After lunch, students choose an afternoon activity: swimming, rock climbing, homesteading and gardening, culinary arts, or advanced digital photography ("Selfies and Self-Portraiture"). Bus transportation is provided to and from camp every day. Most Circle artists who return every summer to teach can also be found working in galleries around the square year-round and remain mentors for students in need of positive adult role models. Throughout the year, Campagnola writes grants, forges business partnerships, and recruits new sponsors to underwrite the summer camp expenses. Beyond the financial and in-kind donations, several businesses and organizations have become direct partners, providing leadership train- ON Circle Round the Square: Learn, Create, Accomplish, and Be Recognized julie brewer One camper expresses herself in pulp during a mandala-making workshop. below: A finished silkscreen print on a pulp painting by workshop participant. All photos by and courtesy of Eli Hiller, 2014. summer 2015 - 41 Families admire the final images at the grand opening of the exhibition. ing, food, instructors, facilities, and even full-ride scholarships to graduating seniors who complete leadership training and work a summer in the camp for a small stipend. Many of these students continue after graduation in staff positions. With over 60 participants annually, Campagnola admits, "We are at capacity at this point, but are hoping to expand the program into nearby communities." After ten years, recruitment efforts are simple: letters are sent home to past participants and word of mouth spreads like wildfire. This year the program was one of 50 nominees for the 2014 National Arts and Humanities Youth Art Programming Award. According to the 2013 data from the Ohio Department of Education website, at least 63 percent of the student population are eligible for free or reduced lunches. Students and their families are able to attend without charge. This unique program has produced gains apart from arts learning, most notably in self-esteem. When tested against a control group in a 2013 comprehensive program evaluation, the participants boasted a 4-percent gain in self-esteem, compared to the control group, whose self-esteem rates initially began higher but actually dropped by 2.2 percent by the end of the program. Additionally, the program delivers a total of over 140 hours of arts education, meeting 70 Ohio Visual Arts Content Standards. Paper Circle not only spearheads and administers the program, it is also one of the studios in the rotation schedule. For an hour and a half at a time for five days, students are immersed in the papermaking process from start to finish. On the first day, students meet their teachers, Anna Tararova and Jacob Koestler, both professional artists, and are given the design objective: narrative. Viewing samples from the Lascaux cave paintings to Andrew Wyeth and from Frida Kahlo to LaToya Ruby Frazier, students are well primed for the project. They are each loaned a digital camera for one week, and Koestler shows them a few basics. A short field trip to a nearby historic village allows students to cut cattails for their paper and practice taking photographs. For some, this is their first time using a digital camera. Outside the studio the next day, one group of students cuts up the cattails that they picked, to boil with soda ash all morning, while another handful of students tears pieces of processed abaca. Together, the cattails and abaca will make a strong, smooth surface with a local flair, ideal for pulp painting. With the abaca pieces tossed into the beater and the cattails set to boil, students shuffle inside to discuss their favorite images from the photo shoot the day before. After seeing and discussing with a rich vocabulary what they like and do not like about their photographs, students are encouraged to take more photos at home. At midweek, the boiled-down cattails are tossed into the beater while students discuss and decide which photographs they will use for their silkscreen prints. With these choices in mind, they help Tararova mix pigment with cotton, thinking carefully which negative spaces will need which colors. The following day, Tararova demonstrates the process of dipping the mould and deckle into the pulp to create a base sheet with an even distribution of fiber suitable for pulp painting. She shows students how they can add the variously colored pulps to enhance the negative spaces of their photographs. Students dive into the process with the goal of making at least five sheets by the end of the session. Finally, after one week the project comes to a head. Teachers have worked tirelessly overnight to burn the students' selected images onto screens to be ready for printing. To begin, instructors demonstrate the process: from reclaiming the screen to pulling an edition of screen prints. Students partner up and begin printing the strong black ink onto their vibrant pulp paintings with remarkable results. With constant teacher feedback, students are beaming by the time their five-print editions are complete. After selecting their best prints, students are guided in writing artist statements to display with their artwork at the art exhibit held during the Final Friday regional Art Walk. Students proudly lead their families through the exhibit, pointing to their work on display. Parents and teachers are filled with pride. Breonna, a second-year intern said, "I have never seen so many smiles, twinkles in eyes, or had been filled with so much joy and happiness. But they did it! I am so proud of them for putting on such an amazing performance, but even prouder knowing I worked here helping them achieve their dreams."
